SPEECH 

r/.-.i. 

OF 

REV.  HENRY  B_LEBY, 

MISSIONARY  FROM  BARBADOES, 

ON  THE 

RESULTS  OF  EMANCIPATION 

IN  THE 


BRITISH  W.  1.  COLONIES, 

Delivered  at  the  Celebration  of  the  Massachu¬ 
setts  Anti-Slavery  Society,  held  at  Island 
Grove,  Abington,  July  31st,  1858. 


PHONOGEAPHIC  REPORT'  BT  J.  M.  W.  YERRINTON. 

-  <: 


BOSTON: 

R.  F.  WALLCUT,  21  CORNHILL. 

1  8  5  8. 


SPEECH. 


I  am  happy,  Mr.  President,  that  you  have  placed 
me  before  this  assembly,  not  as  one  from  whom  a 
speech  may  be  expected,  but  in  the  capacity  of  a  wit¬ 
ness  ;  and  therefore  I  can  tell  a  plain,  straight-for¬ 
ward  tale,  without  being  at  all  cast  down  by  the  con¬ 
sciousness  that  I  cannot  make  any  pretension  to  those 
gifts  of  oratory,  which  I  have  observed  our  friends 
have  been  accustomed  to  meet  with  in  connection  with 
those  who  have  taken  a  leading  part  on  such  occasions 
as  this. 

I  am,  perhaps,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  only  person  pres¬ 
ent  who  was  an  ej'-e-witness  of  that  event  which  you 
have  met  together  this  day  to  celebrate.  You  will  see 
that  I  am  not  a  very  old  man,  sir ;  the  snows  of  age 
have  not  entirely  covered  my  head ;  but  I  am  old 
enough  to  have  been  present  during  that  insurrection 
to  which  you  have  referred,  and  which  was  one  of  the 
principal  events  which  hastened  on  the  crisis  of  the 
movement  for  West  India  Emancipation,  and  con¬ 
strained  the  British  government  to  ‘  let  the  oppressed 
go  free.’  It  had  been  customary  with  the  pro-slavery 
press  of  Great  Britain, — and  a  very  large  portion  of 
that  press  was,  up  to  a  late  hour,  under  the  influence 
of  the  West  India  body,  and  of  those  interested  in 


4 


the  maintenance  of  slavery, — it  had  been  customary 
for  that  press,  as  it  is  now  of  the  pro-slavery  press  of 
this  country,  to  endeavor  to  mislead  the  masses  by 
asserting  that  the  slaves  were  better  olf  than  they 
would  be  in  freedom,  that  they  were  perfectly  con¬ 
tent  with  their  lot,  that  they  hugged  their  chains,  and 
that  it  was,  in  brief,  a  condition  very  little  short  of 
the  happiness  of  Paradise.  You  may  imagine,  then, 
what  sort  of  feeling  would  be  excited  in  Great  Brit¬ 
ain,  among  its  churches  and  the  people  generally, 
when  the  startling  intelligence  reached  them,  in  the 
beginning  of  1832,  that  fifty  thousand  slaves  in  the 
island  of  Jamaica  had  made  an  effort  for  liberty,  had 
resolved  to  strike  a  blow  for  freedom,  and  had  stood 
up  in  opposition  to  their  masters,  and  to  the  law  which 
held  them  in  bondage,  and  claimed  their  freedom. 
Sir,  the  illusion  was  at  once  dispelled,  and  it  was  seen 
and  felt,  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  Great 
Britain,  that  the  public  mind  had  been  imposed  upon, 
and  that  there  existed  in  the  West  Indies,  amongst 
the  slaves,  an  intense  desire,  nay,  more  than  that,  a 
determination  to  be  free.  Sir,  I  happened  to  be  sta¬ 
tioned  in  the  island  of  Jamaica,  and  in  that  part  of  it 
which  was  the  scene  of  this  insurrection.  I  knew  the 
person  with  whom  the  insurrection  originated  very 
well ;  I  marked  its  progress  ;  1  was  an  eye-witness  to 
the  cruelties  and  slaughter  by  which  it  was  sup¬ 
pressed  ;  and  I  saw  it  brought  to  a  termination.  The 
man  with  whom  the  insurrection  originated, — Samu¬ 
el  Sharp, — was  a  slave,  and  a  member  of  the  Baptist 
church  in  Montego  Bay.  Although  it  may  seem 
strange  to  many',  Sam  Sharp  was  a  very  handsome 
negro,  a  perfect  model  man ;  and,  more  than  that,  he 


5 


had  learned  to  read.  He  was  born  in  slavery,  but  he 
had  never  felt  any  thing  of  the  bitterness  of  slavery. 
He  was  born  in  a  family  that  treated  him  indulgent¬ 
ly  ;  he  was  a  pet,  and  was  brought  up  as  the  play¬ 
mate  of  the  juvenile  members  of  the  family,  and  had 
opportunities  of  learning  to  read  and  for  mental  cul¬ 
tivation,  to  which  very  few  of  his  fellow-slaves  had 
access ;  and  Sharp,  above  all  this,  was  possessed  of 
a  mind  worthy  of  any  man,  and  of  oratorical  powers 
of  no  common  order.  I  have  been  astonished,  when 
I  have  heard  that  man  address  a  large  assembly,  as  I 
did  several  times  w’hile  he  was  in  jail,  to  see  the  pow¬ 
er  W’ith  which  he  swayed  the  feelings,  the  hearts,  and 
the  minds  of  his  auditory.  He  w'as  a  man  of  no 
common  stamp,  though  a  black  man,  and  born  in  sla¬ 
very. 

Well,  sir.  Sharp  determined  to  free  himself  and 
his  fellow-slaves.  I  do  not  know  whether  he  was 
himself  deceived,  or  whether  he  knowingly  deceived 
his  fellow-conspirators,  but  he  persuaded  a  large 
number  of  them  to  believe  that  the  British  govern¬ 
ment  had  made  them  free,  and  that  their  owners 
W’ere  keeping  them  in  slavery  in  opposition  to  the 
w’ishes  of  the  authorities  in  England.  It  so  happen¬ 
ed,  sir,  that,  just  at  that  time,  the  planters  themselves 
were  pursuing  a  course  which  favored  Sharp’s  pro¬ 
ceedings  directly.  They  were  holding  meetings 
through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  island,  pro¬ 
testing  against  the  interference  of  the  home  govern¬ 
ment  with  their  property,  passing  very  inflammatory 
resolutions,  and  threatening  that  they  would  transfer 
their  allegiance  to  the  United  States,  in  order  that 
they  might  perpetuate  their  interest  in  their  slaves. 


6 


Sharp  dexterously  took  advantage  of  these  meetings, 
and  pointed  out  to  the  slaves,  that  if  it  -were  not  true 
that  the  British  government  were  willing  to  make 
them  free,  there  would  be  no  necessity  for  such  meet¬ 
ings  and  such  publications  as  these.  The  consequence 
was,  that  about  fifty  thousand  of  these  people,  at  the 
Christmas  holidays,  were  in  insurrection,  and  claimed 
their  rights  as  British  subjects,  and  as  free  men,  re¬ 
fusing  to  go  to  work  on  any  terms,  except  on  the  pay¬ 
ment  of  their  proper  wages  as  free  workmen.  The 
insurrection  was  soon  put  down,  as  you  may  imag¬ 
ine.  Sharp  really  believed  that  the  British  soldiers 
would  not  act  in  opposition  to  the  slaves,  in  claiming 
their  freedom  ;  he  soon  found  his  mistake,  however. 
A  large  body  of  military  was  ordered  to  that  part  of 
the  island.  The  commander-in-chief  was  a  man  who 
felt  as  a  man  ought  to  feel  under  such  circumstances, 
and  sought  to  do  every  thing  he  could  to  put  an  end 
to  the  insurrection  by  lenient  measures,  and  issued  a 
proclamation,  promising  that  all  who  would  return  to 
their  duty  within  a  limited  period  should  be  pardon  - 
ed, — that  no  notice  should  betaken  of  what  they  had 
done,  unless  they  had  been  guilty  of  incendiarism, 
or  had  committed  personal  violence  upon  the  oppo¬ 
site  party.  Parties  were  sent  out  with  the  proclama¬ 
tion,  and  many  of  the  slaves,  finding  that  their  at  • 
tempt  to  recover  their  freedom  in  this  way  would  be 
vain,  came  in,  and  resumed  their  labors  upon  the  es¬ 
tates.  The  insurrection  would  soon  have  been  put 
down,  and  very  little  loss  of  life  would  have  ensued, 
had  not  the  militia  of  the  island,  consisting  of  the 
planters,  who  had  manifested  the  greatest  cow¬ 
ardice  when  the  insurrection  broke  out,  now  recov- 


7 


ered  their  bravery,  and  subjected  those  who  had 
taken  part  in  it  to  every  indignity  and  outrage.  I 
have  seen  men  and  <vomen  who  came  in  under  the 
proclamation,  and  the  promise  it  contained  from  the 
commander-in-chief,  taken  out  of  the  field,  with  their 
hoes  in  their  hands,  tied,  and  shot  dead.  I  used 
to  see  the  gallows  filled  with  insurgents  from 
morning  to  night.  I  remember,  on  one  occasion,  my 
attention  was  directed  to  an  execution  which  was 
about  to  take  place — that  of  one  of  the  principal 
leaders  in  the  insurrection.  A  court-martial  was 
sitting  in  Montego  Bay,  and  about  twenty  or  thir¬ 
ty  yards  off,  a  gallows  had  been  erected,  on  which  five 
or  six  persons  could  be  executed  at  once.  Five  men 
were  hanging  on  it,  and  five  more  were  beneath  it, 
and  it  was  rumored  that  Capt.  Dehany,  a  man  who 
had  taken  a  leading  part  in  the  insurrection,  was  to 
be  executed  in  the  next  lot.  The  executioner,  who 
w'as  a  brutal  black  man,  and  one  who  had  escaped  the 
gallows  on  condition  that  he  should  perform  these  hor¬ 
rible  duties,  was  leaning  against  one  of  the  posts  of 
the  gallows,  eating  his  breakfast, — a  piece  of  salt  fish 
in  one  hand,  and  a  piece  of  plantain  in  the  other. 
He  was  told  his  victims  were  ready.  (They  only  al¬ 
lowed  the  doomed  ones  half  an  hour  after  their  con¬ 
viction  to  prepare  for  death.)  Bacchus, — that  was  the 
name  of  the  executioner, — put  down  his  food  upon  a 
projection  of  the  gallows,  walked  up  the  ladder,  and 
with  the  knife  with  which  he  had  been  eating  his 
breakfast,  severed  the  cords  on  which  the  victims  on 
the  gallows  were  hanging,  and  down  they  fell,  one  after 
another,  upon  the  heap  of  dead  below.  Then  he  brought 
out  Dehany  and  his  fellows.  I  knew  him  at  once, 


8 


though  I  had  never  seen  him  before,  by  the  demeanor 
of  the  man, — a  fine,  broad-chested,  model  man, — a 
yellow-skinned  negro,  as  they  called  him  there ; 
but  there  rested  upon  his  countenance  an  angry 
frown.  The  man  walked  out  to  meet  his  doom  as  if 
he  were  walking  at  the  head  of  a  triumphal  proces¬ 
sion.  A  gentleman  stepped  up  to  him  and  said,  ‘  De- 
hany,  what  is  troubling  you  at  a  time  like  this  ?  ’ 
•Mr.  Manderson,’  said  he,  ‘they  want  me  to  go  be¬ 
fore  God  with  a  lie  in  my  mouth.  They  want  me  to 
say  that  the  missionaries  put  us  up  to  it.  They  know 
it  is  a  lie.’  ‘  Well,  never  mind,’  said  the  gentleman  ; 

‘  don’t  let  that  trouble  you  now.’  The  frown  soon 
passed  off  his  face,  and  they  were  marched  up  the 
platform  and  tied  up  ;  signal  was  given,  and  the 
rope  was  cut.  I  looked,  and  only  four  of  them  hung 
upon  the  gallows,  and  Dehany  was  not  among  them. 
The  rope  had  broken,  and  he  had  fallen  to  the  ground. 
They  picked  him  up,  half-strangled,  and  in  a  state  of 
unconsciousness  for  a  moment  or  two.  I  went  up,  in 
the  midst  of  the  crowd,  to  witness  his  demeanor. 
Still,  sir,  with  all  these  horrors  about  him,  the  man 
was  undaunted.  I  could  hear  the  whisper  of  prayer 
upon  his  lips ;  there  was  nothing  about  him  of  bra¬ 
vado,  but  every  thing  that  indicated  the  manly  cour¬ 
age  of  one  who  is  conscious  he  is  dying  in  an  hon¬ 
orable  cause.  (Applause.) 

So  it  was  with  Samuel  Sharp.  After  the  insurrec¬ 
tion  was  put  down.  Sharp  was  taken,  and  he  was  the 
last  man  put  to  death  in  consequence  of  that  insur¬ 
rection.  About  two  thousand  were  slain ;  many  of 
them,  •of  course,  in  encounters  with  the  military,  but 
most  of  them  were  either  shot  or  hanged  in  cold  blood. 


9 


I  have  myself  seen  not  less  than  nineteen  of  these 
poor  creatures  led  out  in  one  batch,  to  be  lianged  up 
like  dogs.  I  have  known  sixty  to  be  led  out  from  the 
same  jail,  in  the  course  of  three  days,  and  put  to  death. 
On  one  occasion,  I  saw  a  poor  fej^-ow  brought  into 
town,  his  hands  tied  behind  him;  a  court  martial  was 
immediately  summoned,  and  with  scarcely  a  show  of 
evidence  that  the  man  had  done  any  thing  in  connec¬ 
tion  with  the  insurrection, — indeed,  there  was  nothing 
found,  except  that  he  was  in  the  midst  of  a  crowd 
looking  on  whilst  a  building  was  burning  which  had 
been  set  on  fire  by  the  insurrectionists, — he  was  con¬ 
victed,  and  led  out  to  be  shot.  They  were  in  such  a 
hurry,  that  they  did  not  even  take  the  trouble  to  pass 
sentence  upon  him  ;  and  when  within  an  hour  and  a 
half  from  the  time  he  w^as  brought  into  the  town,  he 
stood  under  the  gallows,  I  heard  him  inquire,  ‘  What 
are  you  going  to  do  with  me  ?  ’  They  had  not  even 
had  the  humanity  to  tell  him  he  was  going  to  die. 
The  officer  stepped  up  to  him,  took  up  his  jacket, 
which  had  been  torn  off  when  he  was  brought  to  the 
spot,  threw  it  over  his  face,  and  said,  ‘  You  will 
find  out  in  a  moment.’  He  stepped  back,  the  word 
w'as  given,  and  the  man  lay  there,  a  bullet  through 
his  brain,  and  another  through  his  heart.  I  heard 
one  man  say  to  the  crowd  of  slaves  standing  round, — 
pointing  to  the  hole  in  the  slave’s  head, — ^‘Y'ou  want 
your  freedom,  do  you  ?  Put  your  finger  there  !  That 
is  the  kind  of  freedom  we  will  give  you,  you  black 
devils  !  ’  This  I  heard  with  my  own  ears. 

I  saw  hundreds  thus  slaughtered  in  cold  blood. 
Sharp  was  the  last  brought  out  to  be  put  to 
death;  and  his  end  was  worthy  of  his  character. 


10 


I  had  frequent  opportunities  to  converse  with  him 
W'hile  he  was  in  jail.  When  I  saw  so  many  put  to 
death,  I  wrote  a  communication  for  one  of  the  island 
newspapers,  wuth  the  intention  of  directing  the  Gov¬ 
ernor’s  attention'  to  the  wholesale  slaughter  that  was 
going  on.  It  had  the  effect  I  intended.  The  Govern¬ 
or  read  it,  and  the  next  post  brought  down  an  order 
to  the  authorities,  civil  and  military,  that  no  fur¬ 
ther  executions  should  take  place  for  crimes  com¬ 
mitted  during  the  insurrection,  without  his  own 
warrant.  Thus  it  happened  that  Samuel  Sharp  was 
detained  in  prison  several  w’eeks  after  he  had  been 
tried,  and  sentence  of  death  pronounced  upon  him, 
and  I  had  frequent  opportunities  of  conversing  with 
him.  He  was  a  man  who  had  read  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment,  and  read  the  newspapers,  and  was  in  all  re¬ 
spects  a  superior  man.  I  asked  him  what  it  was  that 
induced  him  to  take  part  in  this  movement,  since  he 
had  never  suffered,  as  many  had,  under  the  lash. 
‘  Sir,’  said  he,  ‘  in  reading  my  Bible,  I  found  the 
white  man  had  no  more  right  to  make  a  slave  of  me 
than  I  had  to  make  a  slave  of  the  white  man — (ap¬ 
plause")  ;  and  I  would  rather  go  out,  and  die  on  that 
gallows,  than  live  a  slave.’  (Loud  applause.)  The 
young  ladies  of  the  family  to  which  he  belonged 
made  him  a  very  handsome  suit  of  white  clothes, 
and  I  saw  him  march  to  his  death.  I  heard  the 
remarks  which  he  made  when  he  stood  on  the 
platform  under  the  gallows  ;  and,  sir,  I  could  not  but 
drop  a  tear  to  see  a  man  like  that  put  to  death,  whose 
only  crime  was,  that  he  made  an  effort  to  recover  that 
liberty  which  is  the  right  of  every  human  being,  and 
of  which  he,  in  common  with  his  brethren,  had  been 
wrongfully  and  wickedly  deprived. 


11 


The  insurrection  was  put  down,  and  the  inten¬ 
tion  which  Sharp  entertained  in  connection  with 
it  was  frustrated.  His  design  was  not  to  do  violence 
to  any  person  or  property,  but  simply  to  act  upon 
the  principle  of  passive  resistance.  He  argued  in  this 
way  : — ‘  They  will  put  to  death  some  of  us,  if  we 
sit  down  and  refuse  to  work  after  Christmas,  and 
we  must  be  content  to  die  for  the  benefit  of  the  rest. 
I,  for  one,  am  ready  to  die,  in  order  that  the  rest  may 
be  free.  (Applause.)  They  may  put  some  of  us 
to  death,  but  they  cannot  hang  and  shoot  us  all, 
and  if  we  are  faithful  one  to  another,  we  must  obtain 
our  freedom.’  (Renewed  applause.) 

Samuel  Sharp’s  plan  was  defeated,  in  this  way  : — 
He  had  not  calculated  sufl^iciently  upon  the  impulsive 
character  of  the  men  he  undertook  to  lead  in  this 
movement, — upon  their  not  being  accustomed  to  ex¬ 
ercise  self-restraint ;  consequently,  when  some  of 
them  broke  into  the  store-houses  of  the  estates,  and 
became  intoxicated,  and  then  set  tire  to  the  buildings, 
that  was  regarded  as  a  signal  all  over  the  coun¬ 
try,  and  the  works  and  mills  w’ere  destroyed  on  two 
hundred  or  three  hundred  estfites.  Sharp  said,  ‘When 
this  occurred,  I  saw  the  scheme  was  defeated.  I 
knew  that  the  whites  would  slaughter  us  without 
mercy,  and  our  freedom  be  a  long  while  put  off.’ 

But,  sir,  although  the  immediate  design  of  Sharp 
was  not  accomplished,  yet  it  was  ultimately.  This 
very  insurrection  was  one  of  the  events  which  hast¬ 
ened  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  West  Indies.  I 
dare  say  my  friend  Mr.  Garrison  is  sufficiently  ac¬ 
quainted  with  the  history  of  those  times  to  remember 
that  in  the  Committee  appointed  by  the  House  of 


12 


Lords  to  investigate  the  whole  question  of  slavery, 
and  also  that  in  the  Committee  appointed  by  the 
House  of  Commons,  the  decision  on  the  question  of 
the  immediate  abolition  of  slavery  turned  upon  this 
point, — ‘  Will  it  be  safe  to  the  planters  that  sla¬ 
very  be  continued  f  ’  Two  of  my  brother  missiona¬ 
ries,  who  went  home  for  the  express  purpose  of  ap¬ 
pearing  before  these  Committees,  gave  it  as  their 
opinion  that  it  would  not  be  safe ;  that  these  insur¬ 
rectionary  attempts  would  be  repeated,  and  that  the 
probability  was,  that  if  the  British  government  did 
not  bring  slavery  in  the  colonies  to  a  peaceful  termina¬ 
tion,  it  would  soon  be  quenched  in  blood,  and  the 
slaves  would  emancipate  themselves.  That  convic¬ 
tion  was  forced  upon  the  Committees  of  both  Houses 
of  Parliament ;  they  reported  accordingly,  and  the 
doom  of  slavery  was  sealed. 

Sir,  it  was  my  privilege  to  be  in  Jamaica  when 
slavery  came  to  an  end,  and  I  rejoiced  the  more 
to  be  a  witiiess  of  its  extinction,  because  I  had 
suffered  in  common  with  my  brethren,  in  connection 
with  it.  We  were  sent  out  as  the  instructors  of  the 
slaves  and  free  colored  people.  We  built  churches, 
assisted  by  the  liberality  of  the  British  people,  all  over 
the  island,  wherever  we  could,  and  we  were  sustained 
by  funds  contributed  by  British  benevolence,  as  in¬ 
structors  of  the  negroes.  Well,  sir,  we  were  denounc¬ 
ed  by  the  planters,  from  the  beginning  of  our  efforts, 
as  spies  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society.  They  had  saga¬ 
city  enough  to  discover,  at  a  very  early  period  of  our 
labors,  that  slavery  and  Christianity  could  not  long 
co-exist  ;  that  they  were  essentially  antagonistic,  and 
that  the  one  must  ultimately  destroy  the  other.  De- 


13 


termined  to  pei’petuate  slavery,  they  resolved  to  do  all 
thej'  could  to  get  rid  of  Christianity,  and  keep  their 
people  in  heathen  darkness ;  and,  consequently, 
throughout  our  history  we  were  subjected  to  the  most 
bitter  persecution  ;  and,  sir,  just  after  the  insurrection 
to  which  I  have  referred,  the  whole  white  people  of 
the  island  of  Jamaica  banded  themselves  together  in 
an  association  which  they  called  ‘  The  Colonial 
Union,’  the  avowed  object  of  which  was  to  drive  every 
instructor  of  the  negroes  from  the  island.  Eighteen 
of  our  churches  were  levelled  with  the  ground.  They 
dragged  the  missionaries  to  prison,  got  false  witnesses 
to  swear  against  them,  treated  them  with  brutal  vio¬ 
lence,  and  did  every  thing  they  could  to  put  an  end 
to  our  labors.  But,  as  they  were  determined  to  drive 
us  away,  we  were  determined  to  remain,  and  remain 
we  did.  (Loud  applause.)  Though  our  churches  lay 
in  ruins,  and  we  could  not  gather  a  congregation, 
though  our  societies  were  scattered,  and  we  were  ex¬ 
posed  to  all  the  indignities  which  the  anti-slavery 
advocates  have  to  suffer  now  in  the  South,  we  stood 
our  ground,  and  by  and  by  we  saw  the  result  of  all 
these  things.  We  were  much  discouraged  when 
these  events  took  place.  When  we  saw  these  violent 
men  rampant  and  triumphant,  w'hen  we  saw  our 
churches  in  ruins,  and  our  congregations  scattered 
hither  and  thither,  and  our  mouths  closed  for  nearly 
two  years  together,  we  were  greatly  discouraged,  and 
we  wondered  what  Divine  Providence  was  working 
out  through  all  these  things.  By  and  by  we  began 
to  see  what  it  was.  By  these  means  it  was  that  that 
storm  of  indignation  was  raised  among  the  British 
people,  that  led  to  the  abolition  of  slavery.  They  saw 


14 


there  was  no  chance  even  of  evangelizing  the  negroes 
while  slavery  existed,  and  they  rose  in  their  might, 
and  the  British  Government  was  obliged  to  yield ; 
and  slavery,  with  all  its  abominations,  its  chains  and 
whips,  its  tortures  and  dungeons,  was  swept  away,  to 
be  known  no  more  in  those  colonies  for  ever.  ^Ap- 
plause.) 

Sir,  I  was  there  when  slavery  was  abolished.  I 
saw  the  monster  die.  This  day,  tw'enty-four  years 
ago,  I  stood  up  late  at  night,  in  one  of  the  churches 
under  my  charge, — a  very  large  church, — and  the 
aisles  were  crowded,  and  the  gallery  stairs,  and  the 
communion  place,  and  the  pulpit  stairs,  w'ere  all 
crowded,  and  there  were  thousands  of  people  round 
the  building,  at  every  open  door  and  window,  looking 
in.  This  was  at  ten  o’clock  at  night,  on  the  31st  of 
July.  We  thought  that  it  was  right  and  proper  that 
our  Christian  people  should  receive  their  freedom  as 
a  boon  from  God,  and  in  the  house  of  prayer,  and 
we  gathered  them  together  in  the  church  for  a 
midnight  service.  It  was  my  privilege  to  stand 
up  in  that  congregation,  and  ‘  proclaim  liberty  to 
the  captive,  and  the  opening  of  the  prison  doors 
to  them  that  were  bound.’  (Applause.)  Sir,  our 
mouths  had  been  closed  about  slavery  up  to  that 
time.  We  could  not  quote,  without  endangering  our 
lives,  a  passage  that  had  reference  even  to  spiritual 
emancipation.  These  planters  found  treason  in  the 
Bible  and  sedition  in  the  spiritual  hymns  of  Watts 
and  Wesley,  and  we  were  obliged  to  be  careful  how 
we  used  them,  and  in  what  connection  we  used  the 
word  liberty  ;  because  they  had  a  law, — the  law  of 
‘  constructive  treason,’  it  was  called, — that  doomed  any 


15 


man  to  death  who  made  use  of  language  tending  to 
excite  a  desire  for  liberty  among  the  slaves.  You  may 
imagine,  then,  with  what  feelings  I  s.aw  myself  eman¬ 
cipated  from  this  thraldom,  and  free  to  proclaim  lib¬ 
erty  to  the  captive,  and  the  opening  of  prison-doors 
to  them  that  were  bound.’  (Applause.)  I  took  for 
my  text  that  night  Leviticus  25  :  10.  lly  and 
by,  the  midnight  hour  approached.  When  it  was 
within  two  or  three  minutes  of  the  first  of  August, — 
the  day  appointed  for  the  liberation  of  the  slaves, — I 
requested  all  the  people  to  kneel  down,  as  befitting  the 
solemnity  of  the  hour,  and  engage  in  silent  prayer  to 
God.  They  did  so  ;  and,  sir,  I  looked  down  upon 
them — the  silence  onh'^  broken  by  the  sobs  of  emotion 
which  it  was  impossible  to  repress.  By  and  by  the 
clock  began  to  strike ; — it  was  the  knell  of  Slavery  ! 
It  was  the  stroke  which  proclaimed  liberty  to  eight 
hundred  thousand  human  beings  !  And,  sir,  what  a 
burst  of  joy  rolled  over  that  mass  of  people  when  the 
clock  struck,  and  they  felt  they  were  slaves  no  longer  ! 
They  remained  on  their  knees  a  moment,  and  then  I 
told  them  to  rise.  They  did  so  ;  .and,  sir,  it  was  really 
affecting  to  see,  in  one  corner,  a  mother,  with  her  lit¬ 
tle  one,  whom  she  had  brought  with  her,  because 
there  was  no  one  at  home  to  take  care  of  it,  clasp  her 
baby  to  her  bosom  ;  and  there  was  an  old  white  head¬ 
ed  man,  embracing  a  daughter ;  and  here,  again, 
would  be  a  husband  congratulating  his  wife  in  a  simi¬ 
lar  way  ;  and  something  like  confusion  was  apparent 
all  over  the  building.  However,  we  made  allowance 
for  these  seeming  improprieties,  because  of  the  occa¬ 
sion,  and  by  and  by  all  was  still  again,  and  then,  sir, 
I  gave  out  a  hymn.  I  am  glad  to  sa}'  I  have  it  here. 


16 


I  cannot  tell  you,  so  -well  as  you  may  imagine,  the 
feelings  with  which  these  people,  just  emerging  into 
freedom,  shouted, — for  they  literally  shouted, — the 
hymn  which  I  now  read  to  you  : — 

‘  Send  the  glad  tidings  o’er  the  sea, — 
llis  chains  are  broke,  the  slave  is  free ; 
Britannia's  justice,  wealth,  and  might 
Have  gained  the  negro’s  long-lost  right ! 

His  chains  are  broke,  the  slave  is  free,; — 

This  is  the  Negro’s  jubilee  ! 

‘  Hail !  blessed  and  auspicious  day  ! 

Dear  is  thy  first  bright  dawning  ray. 

Which  comes,  an  angel  from  above, 

Herald  of  freedom,  joy  and  love : 

•  Thy  breezes  whisper,  ‘  Slave,  be  free  !  ’ — 

Now  is  the  Negro’s  jubilee  ! 

‘  O  Thou,  W'hose  favor  long  was  sought. 

What  full  deliverance  hast  thou  wrought ! 
The  captive’s  groan  has  pierced  thine  ear. 
And  thou  hast  wiped  the  falling  tear. 

The  curse  is  past,  the  slave  is  free! 

This  is  the  Negro’s  jubilee  ! 

‘  Our  prayers  shall  now  with  praise  combine. 
For  freedom  poured  on  every  clime; 

For  holy  freedom,  gracious  Lord, 

To  join  a  world  in  sweet  accord  : 

Then,  freed  from  sin,  from  error  free. 

We  ’ll  keep  a  brighter  jubilee  !  ’ 

I  hope  the  time  will  soon  come,  Mr.  Chairman, 
when  thousands  of  Christian  ministers,  with  their 
congregations,  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  United  States,  will  be  able  to  sing  that  Jubilee 
Hymn  I  (Loud  applause.) 

But,  sir,  I  find  that  I  am  trespassing  upon  the  time 
and  patience  of  the  audience,  [Cries  of  ‘  No,  no,’  and 


17 


‘  Go  on,’]  and  therefore  I  will  hasten  to  another  sub¬ 
ject,  which  I  have  found,  since  I  have  been  in  New 
England,  is  regarded  by  many  persons  as  of  great  im¬ 
portance,  namely.  The  Working  of  Emancipation  in 
the  British  Colonies. 

Sir,  I  have  been  told,  since  I  have  been  here,  that 
emancipation,  it  is  understood,  has  been  a  failure. 
I  am  prepared  to  give  this  statement  an  unqualified 
contradiction.  There  is  no  sense  whatever  in  which 
the  emancipation  of  the  shaves  of  the  British  colonies 
has  proved  a  failure.  Sir,  emancipation  has  not 
proved  a  failure  in  this  sense, — the  people  are  all 
free.  It  has  not  failed  to  break  their  chains  and  set 
them  free.  In  that  it  is  no  failure,  but  a  blessed 
reality.  Then,  sir,  I  am  told  that  the  people  are  worse 
off  in  freedom  than  they  were  in  slavery,  and  in  that 
sense  emancipation  has  proved  a  failure.  But,  sir,  it 
is  not  true  ;  and  I  wonder,  I  have  often  wondered, 
how  any  man  with  common  sense  could  for  a  moment 
entertain  such  an  opinion.  Sir,  the  people  now, 
throughout  the  British  colonies,  have  their  own  time 
at  their  disposal — their  whole  time.  This  was  not 
the  case  in  the  days  of  slavery.  The  only  time  they 
had  at  their  disposal  then  was  one  day  in  two  weeks, 
to  cultivate  their  provision  grounds  and  procure  the 
necessaries  of  life,  and  the  Sabbath  to  go  to  market, 
and  for  religious  worship,  if  they  chose.  That  was  all 
the  time  the  people  in  Jamaica  had  at  their  own  dispo¬ 
sal  under  slavery.  Their  masters  did  not  give  them 
food  or  wages,  but  they  gave  them  a  piece  of  land, — 
it  might  be  two  or  three  acres,  if  they  could  cultivate 
them, — sometimes  four  or  five,  even  ten  or  fifteen 
miles  away  from  the  estate  on  which  they  resided ; 


18 


and  they  gave  them  one  day  in  two  weeks  to  raise 
provisions  upon  this  piece  of  land, — and  that  was  all, 
except  a  little  salt  fish  now  and  then,  with  which  to 
season  their  provisions.  Now,  sir,  the  people  have 
all  their  time ;  they  can  spend  it  to  the  best  advan¬ 
tage,  according  to  their  own  judgment,  and  according 
to  their  views  of  their  own  interest.  Then,  sir,  the 
people  now  have  the  Sabbath.  Formerly,  it  was  im¬ 
possible  for  them  to  keep  holy  the  Sabbath  day ; 
they  had  to  go  to  market  on  that  day ;  and  when 
their  market  was  over,  they  would  bring  their  bas¬ 
kets  and  trays  to  the  place  of  worship,  and  deposit 
them  there,  —  having  taken  some  opportunity  to 
change  their  apparel, — while  they  went  into  the  sanc¬ 
tuary  to  w'orship  God.  That  was  all  the  Sabbath  the 
negro  had.  The  Sabbath  market  prevailed  over  the 
whole  of  the  West  Indies,  and  there  was  more  busi¬ 
ness  done  on  that  day  than  on  all  the  other  days  of  the 
week.  All  this  was  brought  to  an  end  by  emanci¬ 
pation.  The  negro  can  now  spend  the  whole  day  with 
his  family  in  the  house  of  prayer  and  in  the  worship 
of  God,  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  conscience. 

Then,  sir,  the  negro  is  free  from  the  liability  to  the 
lash.  It  is  true,  that  for  some  y'ears  before  emancipa¬ 
tion,  the  law  limited  the  master’s  power  of  punishment 
to  the  infliction  of  thirty-nine  lashes  at  one  time ;  but 
the  master  had  only  to  take  care  that  none  but  slaves 
were  witnesses,  and  he  might  inflict  three  hundred 
and  ninety  lashes  instead  of  thirty-nine,  without  the 
slightest  apprehension  of  punishment,  because  the  tes¬ 
timony  of  a  slave  could  not  be  received  against  his 
master,  whatever  he  might  do.  Now,  sir,  the  power 
of  punishment  was  taken  from  the  hands  of  the  mas- 


19 


ter,  at  the  time  of  emancipation,  and  placed  in  the 
hands  of  the  magistrate,  responsible  to  the  public  and 
to  the  government  for  the  manner  in  which  he  uses 
his  authority. 

Then,  sir,  families  are  no  longer  liable  to  be  scatter¬ 
ed;  the  child  cannot  be  sold  away  from  the  parent, 
nor  the  wife  from  the  husband,  as  used  to  be  the  case 
in  the  days  of  slavery.  Although,  for  some  years, 
this  was  prevented  by  the  ameliorating  measures  in¬ 
troduced  by  the  British  government,  before  emanci¬ 
pation,  yet  in  the  times  of  ancient  slavery,  the  wife 
and  child  were  sold  and  separated  from  each  other, 
and  from  the  husband  and  father,  without  the  slightest 
feeling  or  compunction,  just  as  now  in  the  Southern 
States  of  this  Union.  All  this  has  passed  away. 

Then,  sir,  the  negroes  have  their  own  houses. 
Nearly  all  the  black  people  in  Jamaica  are  freehold¬ 
ers.  They  have  their  own  pieces  of  land,  and  their 
own  cottages  erected  upon  the  land,  and  there  they 
dwell,  under  their  own  vine  and  tig  tree,  no  man  dar¬ 
ing  to  molest  or  make  them  afraid. 

Then  they  have  the  disposal  of  their  children. 
They  can  send  them  to  school,  or  take  them  to  work 
in  the  field,  at  their  pleasure. 

All  these  beneficial  changes  have  been  wrought  by 
emancipation  ;  and  yet  we  are  told  that  emancipation 
has  failed  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  colored 
race.  Sir,  it  is  one  of  the  many  falsehoods  got  up  by 
the  pro-slavery  party  to  blind  the  eyes  of  the  friends 
of  humanity  in  this  country,  and  promote  the  inter¬ 
ests  of  slavery.  It  is  a  falsehood,  and  I  denounce  it  as 
such.  Throughout  the  British  West  Indies,  in  every 
island,  the  condition  of  the  people  is  incomparably 
superior,  in  all  respects,  to  what  it  was  in  slavery. 


20 


Then,  I  am  told,  if  it  has  not  ruined  the  laborer,  it 
has  ruined  the  planter.  Sir,  I  deny  that  as  plainly  as 
I  deny  the  other.  I  might  maintain,  with  great  pro¬ 
priety,  that  if  many  West  India  proprietors  were  ru¬ 
ined  by  emancipation,  they  only  got  what  they  de¬ 
served.  (Laughter.)  I  do  not,  however,  take  that  po¬ 
sition,  but  I  say  this :  that  it  was  not  emancipation, 
but  slavery,  that  ruined  those  who  were  ruined. 
They  were  ruined  long  before  emancipation  took 
place.  I  would  recommend  our  friends  who  can  do 
so  to  read  Montgomery  Martin’s  History  of  the  Brit¬ 
ish  Colonies,  published  in  1851,— a  new  edition  of  a 
former  work.  There  it  is  shown,  to  a  demonstration, 
that  long 'before  Buxton  and  Wilberforce  lifted  their 
voices  in  the  British  Senate  to  advocate  the  emanci¬ 
pation  of  the  negroes,  the  colonists  throughout  the 
W est  Indies  continually  complained  that  they  were 
ruined.  And  no  wonder  that  they  were  ruined. 
There  was  a  condition  of  things  existing  under  slave¬ 
ry,  that  must  inevitably  ruin  any  landholder  under 
the  sun.  Just  look,  sir,  at  the  condition  of  a  West 
India  estate  under  slavery.  There  w'ere  four  or  five 
hundred  slaves.  It  is  true,  the  master  did  not  go  to 
much  expense  in  providing  them  with  luxuries,  or 
even  with  food,  but  he  had  to  bestow  upon  them  so 
many  yards  of  cloth  a  year,  and  several  other  small 
articles  :  that  was  one  item  of  expense.  Then,  to  su¬ 
perintend  the  labor  of  these  slaves,  there  must  be  four 
book-keepers,  as  they  were  called,  one  to  superintend 
the  still,  another  the  boiling-house,  another  took  care 
of  the  cattle  on  the  estate,  and  another,  if  not  two  or 
three,  superintended  the  people  in  the  field.  All 
these  had  to  be  fed  and  salaried.  Then  there  was 


21 


the  overseer  of  the  estate,  with  his  harem,  and  he, 
too,  living  at  considerable  expense  out  of  the  estate, 
and  at  a  high  salary.  Then,  over  all  was  the  attor- 
ne3%  in  the  absence  of  the  proprietor,  who  managed 
the  affairs  of  the  estate,  disposed  of  the  produce,  and 
provided  the  cattle  and  other  materials  for  working 
the  estate.  Well,  he  took  his  commission  out  of  eve¬ 
ry  thing  the  estate  produced,  and  occupied,  at  his  plea¬ 
sure,  what  was  called  ‘  the  great  house,’  and  having 
his  harem  there.  Then,  sir,  there  was  the  proprietor, 
with  his  family,  living  in  France  or  England,  in 
princelj’  style, — and  all  this  to  be  drawn  out  of  the 
produce  of  one  estate.  I  should  like  to  know  wheth¬ 
er  there  is  an  estate  throughout  the  length  arid  breadth 
of  this  country,  that  could  sustain  such  a  drain  as 
this, — whether  there  is  any  property  that  would  not 
be  brought  to  ruin,  with  so  many  living  upon  it  and 
out  of  it. 

It  was  that  process  that  brought  ruin  upon  many  of 
the  West  India  proprietors.  And,  sir,  emancipation 
proved  a  boon  to  them.  The  compensation  money 
enabled  them  to  lessen  the  mortgages  on  their  estates. 
By  this  expensive  method  of  working  the  estates, 
and  this  expensive  style  of  living,  the  merchants,  who 
had  also  their  commissions  to  take  out  of  the  estates, 
became  mortgagees,  by  making  large  advances  on  the 
proiDerty  ;  so  that,  when  emancipation  came,  there 
was  not  one  estate  in  fifty  that  was  not  mortgaged  to 
the  full  extent  of  its  value.  Emancipation  came,  and 
instead  of  being  a  curse,  it  proved  a  blessing  to  the 
proprietors.  Suppose  they  had  four  hundred  slaves  ; 
they  would  receive,  on  the  average,  not  less  than 
twenty  pounds  for  each, — about  £8000,  or  $40,000  for 


22 


the  whole.  It  is  true,  the  mortgagee  took  this  com¬ 
pensation  money  ;  but  then,  the  estate  was  relieved  to 
that  extent,  and  many  of  the  proprietors  w'ere  going 
on  with  a  fair  prospect  of  working  themselves  clear  of 
their  difficulties.  Then  came  another  sweeping  change. 
You  remember  the  free  trade  policy  adopted  by  the 
British  government  during  the  ministry  of  Sir  Robert 
Peel.  Among  those  measures  w'as  one  equalizing  the 
sugar  duty,  and  throwing  the  freed  colonies  of  Bri- 
taiji  into  an  unequal  competition,  or  a  competition  for 
which  they  were  not  prepared,  with  Cuba  and  Brazil, 
where  the  produce  was  raised  by  slave  labor.  I  do  not 
find  fault  w'ith  that  free  trade  policy  ;  indeed,  I  do  not 
express  any  opinion  upon  it  at  all,  for  I  am  not  much 
of  a  politician  ;  but  this  change  came  upon  the  colonies 
prematurely,  before  they  were  prepared  for  it,  and  the 
consequent  reduction  of  the  price  of  sugar  to  an  ex¬ 
tent  which  rendered  it  unremunerative,  forced  some  of 
the  planters  to  an  abandonment  of  their  estates,  which 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  merchants.  In  Antigua, 
some  of  the  best  estates  on  the  island  are  held  by  the 
merchants,  who  obtained  them  in  that  way.  The 
English  house  of  Shand  have  several,  which  came 
into  their  hands  by  the  foreclosing  of  mortgages.  It 
was  in  this  way,  not  by  emancipation,  but  by  slavery 
and  its  concomitants,  that  the  planters  were  ruined. 

Now  look  at  the  West  Indies  as  they  are.  In  the 
island  of  Jamaica,  we  are  told,  there  is  a  satisfactory 
state  of  things.  I  cannot  speak  of  that  island  from 
personal  knowledge,  because  I  have  not  been  there 
within  the  last  ten  years.  But  I  can  say,  that  before 
I  left,  no  less  than  fifty  thousand  colored  people  had 
become  freeholders,  as  the  fruit  of  their  own  industry. 


23 


Yet  we  are  told  these  people  will  not  work.  How  did 
they  obtain  these  freeholds,  then?  Some  of  their 
houses  are  richly  furnished,  with  mahogany  bedsteads 
and  sideboards.  How  did  they  get  these,  expect  as 
the  result  of  their  own  toil  ? 

I  was  in  Jamaica  when  the  railroad  was  built, 
extending  some  fourteen  or  fifteen  miles  from  the 
city  of  Kingston.  I  was  acquainted  with  the  man¬ 
ager  of  the  works.  There  were  considerable  en¬ 
gineering  difficulties  to  be  overcome.  The  road  was 
built  entirely  by  colored  people,  and  the  manager  of 
the  works  told  me  that  he  could  not  desire  people  to 
work  better  than  they  did;  that  he  could  obtain 
workmen  to  any  extent,  and  why  ?  Because,  he  says, 
on  Saturday  evening,  when  they  have  finished  their 
work  for  the  week,  they  have  their  wages.  It  was 
not  so  upon  the  estates,  sir ;  and  that  is  the  reason 
why  hundreds  and  thousands  of  the  colored  people  of 
Jamaica  have  retired  from  work  on  the  sugar  planta¬ 
tions.  I  know  that  many  hundreds  of  them  were  de¬ 
frauded  of  their  wages.  One  of  those  great  planting 
attorneys,  who  had  some  fifty  or  sixty  large  estates 
under  his  care,  made  it  his  boast,  in  the  presence  of  a 
friend  of  mine,  after  the  act  of  emancipation  came 
into  force,  that  he  made  those  estates  pay  well,  because 
he  cheated  the  people  out  of  half  their  wages,  by  one 
method  or  another.  That  was  the  difficulty.  After 
the  people  were  emancipated,  before  they  obtained 
land  and  houses  of  their  own,  they  occupied  the  land 
and  houses  owned  by  the  proprietors,  which  they  had 
occupied  when  they  were  slaves,  and  the  overseers 
made  them  pay  their  rent  three  or  four  times  over. 
You  must  pay,  they  would  say,  so  much  in  labor  for 


24 


the  rent  of  your  house  ;  then  the  wife  was  required 
to  pay  an  equal  amount,  and  if  there  were  two  or 
three  adult  members  of  the  family,  each  one  was  re¬ 
quired  to  pay  the  rent  of  the  cottage  in  labor  ;  and 
thus  they  managed  to  get  out  of  the  people  rent  four 
times  over  in  many  cases,  and  in  numberless  instances, 
three  times  and  twice.  I  happened  to  occupy  a  posi¬ 
tion  which  brought  me  much  into  contact  wdth  the 
laborers,  and  therefore  I  knew  of  the  operation  of  this 
evil.  The  colored  members  of  our  ehurches  contrib¬ 
uted  towards  the  maintenance  of  the  churches,  and 
towards  the  maintenance  of  the  ministers  ;  and  very 
frequently  the  missionaries  were  told,  when  they 
could  not  give  their  usual  contributions,  that  they 
could  not  obtain  their  wages  ;  and  upon  one  occasion, 
a  poor  man,  whom  I  knew  well,  whom  I  had  taught  to 
read  and  write,  who  had  promised  five  dollars  for  the 
erection  of  a  school-house  and  church  in  the  neigh¬ 
borhood  in  which  he  lived,  came  to  me  and  told  me 
he  was  very  sorry  he  could  not  pay  the  money, 
because  his  employer  had  wronged  him  out  of  all  he 
had  earned  for  several  months, — and  that  employer 
was  a  man  who  had  a  salary  of  one  thousand  pounds 
in  connection  with  an  office  which  he  held  under  gov¬ 
ernment.  The  poor  man  had  labored  until  his  wages 
amounted  to  sixteen  doubloons — over  two  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars,  and  then  his  employer  took  the  bene¬ 
fit  of  the  Insolvent  Debtors’  Act,  and  never  paid  him 
or  his  fellow-laborers — there  were  two  or  three  hun¬ 
dred  of  them — one  cent  of  what  they  had  earned  by 
the  labor  of  several  months !  Is  it  surprising,  then, 
that  the  colored  people  should  choose  to  cultivate  their 
own  two,  three  or  five  acres  of  land,  and  get  what  they 


25 


could  off  that,  and  refuse  to  go  to  work  upon  a  planta¬ 
tion  when  they  were  expected  to  do  the  work  of  free¬ 
men  on  the  terms  of  slavery  ? 

These,  sir,  are  the  evils  which  have  wrought  out 
those  results  which  have  seemed,  for  a  time,  to  justify 
the  statement,  that  the  people  would  not  work  in 
Jamaica.  They  are  passing  away.  A  recent  number 
of  the  Anti-Slavery  published  at  New  York, 

which  was  put  into  my  hands  a  day  or  two  ago,  con¬ 
tains  a  long  report  from  one  of  the  leading  anti- slave¬ 
ry  men  in  this  country, — Mr.  Charles  Tappan, — of  a 
visit  which  he  has  been  making  to  the  West  Indies 
Colonies  within  the  last  few  months  ;  and  he  says,  in 
reference  to  Jamaica  : — 

‘  The  alleged  want  of  labor  is  q  false  cry.  To  cul¬ 
tivate  the  whole  area  of  land  at  present  lying  waste  in 
all  the  colonies — except  Barbadoes — would,  indeed, 
absorb  any  number  of  laborers ;  but  the  evidence  is 
overwhelming  that  no  addition  to  their  number  is 
necessary  to  meet  the  demand  for  the  estates  that  are 
actually  under  cultivation.  Where  labor  is  said  to  be 
deficient,  it  can  be  traced  to  causes  within  the  planters’ 
control  to  remove.  Of  these,  insufficient  wages,  un¬ 
punctual  payment  of  the  same,  or  no  payment  at  all, 
are  stated  to  be  the  chief.  Immigration  on  the  pres¬ 
ent  system  is  condemned  as  expensive  and  unsatisfac¬ 
tory,  injurious  to  the  people  who  are  introduced,  and 
to  the  native  colonial  population. 

The  allegations  of  idleness  and  immorality,  which 
have  been  propagated  by  The  Times,  are  indignantly 
repudiated  as  gross  calumnies,  and  the  writers  are 
challenged  to  produce  the  proof  of  their  reckless  state¬ 
ments.  The  Committee  feel  satisfied  that  all  unbiased 
persons  who  read  the  annexed  communications  must 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  negro  population  of 
the  West  India  colonies  have  been  shamefully  malign¬ 
ed,  and  that  the  demand  for  “  immigrant  labor”  pro- 


26 


ceeds  from  a  desire  to  graft  upon  free-labor  a  sj-stem 
of  forced  service,  which  is  totally  incompatible  with 
the  spirit  of  the  Act  of  Emancipation.’ 

So  much  for  Jamaica.  I  cannot  say  much  about  its 
present  condition ;  for  I  have  not  been  there  for  ten 
years.  But,  sir,  I  have  been  in  Barbadoes,  and  there 
I  am  laboring  at  present,  as  a  minister  amongst  the 
colored  churches,  and  I  can  tell  you  the  state  of  that 
island.  Sir,  that  island  even  in  the  most  palmy  days 
of  slavery,  was  never  in  such  a  state  of  prosperitj'  as 
it  is  now.  This  very  year,  although  it  has  been  an 
unfavorable  year,  the  long  drought  lessening  the  crop 
of  sugar,  yet  they  have  raised,  with  no  greater  amount 
of  labor  than  in  the  time  of  slavery,  more  than  double 
the  amount  of  produce  they  ever  raised  under  slavery. 
That  is  the  result  of  this  year’s  labor. 

Now,  let  us  look  at  the  value  of  property  in  that 
island.  If  emancipation  has  ruined  the  proprie¬ 
tors  or  the  work-people,  if  emancipation  has  proved  a 
failure,  how  is  it,  sir,  that  on  the  island  of  Barbadoes, 
you  cannot  get  an  acre  of  land  for  less  than  four  or 
five  hundred  dollars  in  any  part  of  the  island  ?  That 
is  the  truth,  sir.  I  knew  of  an  estate  in  my  own 
neighborhood,  of  not  more  than  two  or  three  hun¬ 
dred  acres,  which  was  transferred  to  other  hands  for 
£18,000 — equal  to  nearly  $90,000  of  your  money — 
and  that  paid  in  cash.  AVhere  is  there  a  farm  of  the 
same  extent  in  the  United  States,  that  will  bring  a 
price  equal  to  that  ?  I  wanted  to  buy  a  piece  of 
land,  within  the  last  tw'elve  months,  to  build  a  school- 
house  upon.  It  was  nine  or  ten  miles  away  from  the 
town,  and  consequently  not  a  building  lot,  and  there 
was  no  circumstance  associated  with  it  to  render  it  of 


27 


extraordinary  value.  I  was  offered  a  piece, — the 
eighth  of  an  acre, — for  how  much,  do  you  think  ? 
Four  hundred  dollars  !  That  was  at  the  rate  of  $3,200 
per  acre  for  land  in  the  country. 

I  occupy  a  mission  station  about  nine  miles  out  of 
Bridgeton.  I  have  two  acres  of  land,  upon  which 
stand  the  place  of  worship,  the  school-house,  my 
place  of  residence,  and  the  teachers’  residence.,  I 
wanted  to  enlarge  our  boundaries,  and  there  were 
two  acres  of  land,  belonging  to  a  small  estate  in  the 
neighborhood,  and  separated  from  it  by  a  road  pass¬ 
ing  through.  It  joins  my  residence,  and  would  be 
very  convenient  in  all  respects,  except  that  half  of  it 
is  very  rocky ;  but  the  owner  would  not  let  me  have 
it  for  less  than  one  thousand  dollars,  and  I  could  not 
make  the  purchase,  because  the  price  was  so  high.  I 
have  known  an  estate  of  three®  ur  hundred  acres 
sold,  within  the  last  eight  months,  for  £40,000.  It  is 
situated  very  near  the  city,  and  that  is  the  reason 
why  the  price  was  so  much  higher  than  the  other 
one  to  which  I  have  referred.  These  facts  speak 
volumes  in  regard  to  the  ‘  ruin  ’  of  the  British  planters 
b)'  emancipation.  (Applause.) 

I  will  tell  you  what  sort  of  ‘  ruin  ’  has  been  brought 
upon  those  islands.  You  will  please  to  understand 
that  I  did  not  furnish  myself  with  facts  before  I  came 
away  ;  they  come  to  me  incidentally.  I  had  no  idea 
that  I  should  have  a  word  to  say  upon  the  anti¬ 
slavery  question,  or  I  would  have  come  better  pre¬ 
pared  with  statistics.  I  am  building  some  schools  for 
the  children  of  our  colored  congregations  ;  and  I  have 
been  round  begging  money  of  the  proprietors.  Among 
the  rest,  I  w’aited  upon  a  Mr.  Carrington,  who  owuis 


28 


two  estates  within  sight  of  my  sitting-room,  and 
he  gave  me  forty  dollars  towards  my  object ;  and 
while  there,  I  learned  these  facts  :  that  last  j’ear,  he 
made  on  the  two  estates  together,  comprising  between 
six  and  seven  hundi'ed  acres,  three  hundred  and 
three  hogsheads  of  sugar.  This  year,  he  resolved  to 
make  an  effort  to  extend  his  cultivation,  and  enlarge 
the  produce.  He  did  so.  He  employed  laborers  to 
cover  all  the  rocks  with  soil,  digging  mud  out  of  the 
ditches  and  out  of  the  pond,  and  covering  up  every 
yard  of  naked  rock,  and  planting  canes  upon  it.  He 
built,  instead  of  the  old  wind  mills,  which  had  been  in 
use  from  time  immemorial,  two  steam  engines,  and  put 
up  on  one  estate  a  double  row  of  coppers  for  the  man¬ 
ufacture  of  the  sugar.  What  is  the  result  i  He  has 
raised  seven  hundred  and  fifty  hogsheads  from  those 
two  estates.  Now,  apart  from  the  capital  he  ex¬ 
pended  in  improvements,  and  in  building,  the  mo¬ 
lasses,  the  draining  from  the  sugar,  would  go  a  long 
way  towards  paying  the  working  expenses  of  these 
estates  ;  and  he  would  carry  into  the  English  market 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  hogsheads  of  sugar,  and 
would  sell  them,  I  dare  say,  at  not  less  than  twenty 
pounds  per  hogshead,  and  would  thus  realize,  from 
those  two  estates,  more  than  sixty  thousand  dollars 
for  the  present  year.  That,  sir,  is  the  kind  of  ruin 
that  emancipation  has  brought  upon  the  West  India 
islands. 

So  in  Antigua.  I  lived  three  years  in  Antigua,  be¬ 
fore  I  went  to  Barbadoes,  and  a  friend  of  mine  there, 
a  member  of  my  own  church,  bought  an  estate,  that 
w’as  sold  under  a  decree  of  Chancery,  for  £5000. 
He  has  taken  off  three  valuable  crops,  which  have 


29 


more  than  repaid  the  original  purchase  mone}’’ ;  and 
he  has  been  offered  £10,000  for  the  property,  and  re¬ 
fused  it.  That  is  the  kind  of  ‘ruin’  that  has  come 
upon  the  West  India  islands  because  of  emancipa¬ 
tion  ! 

Then,  sir,  look  at  the  moral  condition  of  these  is¬ 
lands.  The  moral  condition  of  Barbadoes  will  com¬ 
pare  favorably  with  that  of  any  other  civilized  coun¬ 
try.  I  believe  the  criminal  statistics  of  Barbadoes, 
for  the  last  five  or  six  years,  would  compare  with  any 
country  under  heaven,  without  disadvantage.  We 
seldom  hear  of  any  thing  Jike  serious  crimes.  Then, 
sir,  the  vice  of  intemperance  is  not  prevalent  among 
the  people.  I  have  a  membership  of  seventeen  hun¬ 
dred  colored  persons,  and  during  the  last  two  years  I 
have  been  there,  I  have  not  had  one  single  case  of 
intemperance  reported  to  me,  in  connection  with  our 
disciplinary  proceedings. 

Then  look  at  our  churches.  Every  Sabbath,  they 
are  inconveniently  crowded  by  people  anxious  to  re¬ 
ceive  instruction.  I  know  of  no  people  in  the  world 
who  will  make  snch  efforts  and  exercise  such  self-de¬ 
nial  to  obtain  education  for  their  children  as  the  peo¬ 
ple  in  Barbadoes.  I  will  mention  one  little  incident 
that  occurred  only  a  day  or  two  before  I  left  to  come 
to  this  country.  One  of  my  own  church  members,  a 
colored  man,  had  just  finished  manufacturing  his  lit¬ 
tle  portion  of  sugar,  grown  on  a  part  of  the  half  acre 
of  land  on  which  stood  his  house,  and  on  which  he 
raised  the  provisions  for  his  family,  and  he  brought 
me  six  dollars,  and  requested  that  I  would  receive  the 
money  in  advance  as  school  fees  for  his  four  children 
for  the  next  twelve  months.  That,  sir,  is  the  only 


30 


instance  I  ever  heard  of  in  my  life  of  a  man,  in  his 
condition,  prepaying  the  education  of  his  children  for 
twelve  months.  He  was  resolved,  whatever  else  suf¬ 
fered,  his  children  should  not  suffer  the  loss  of  edu¬ 
cation  ;  he  has  secured  it  for  them  for  the  next  twelve 
months. 

The  people  are  willing  to  do  all  they  can  to  raise 
themselves,  and  they  do  raise  themselves.  I  have 
heard  since  I  have  been  here,  that  colored  people  in 
this  country  do  not  make  efforts  to  raise  themselves 
out  of  their  degraded  position.  [A  voice — ‘  That  is  . 
not  true.’]  If  it  be  true,  I  do  not  wonder  at  it.  I 
do  not  see  how  any  people  can  lift  themselves  up 
against  the  weight  of  prejudice  and  discouragement 
that  seems  to  be  cast  upon  them  in  this  countr}*. 
When  I  came  into  Boston,  two  or  three  weeks  ago,  I 
went  into  a  hotel,  and  the  very  first  thing  that  arrested 
my  attention  was  this  :  A  play-bill  hung  in  the  office 
of  the  hotel,  on  which  I  read — ‘  Colored  people  admit¬ 
ted  only  to  the  gallery.’  That  alone  was  sufficient  to 
satisfy  me  that  they  are  laboring  under  discourage¬ 
ments,  difficulties  and  prejudices  which  must  exercise 
a  blighting  influence  upon  them,  and  must  neces¬ 
sarily  keep  them  dowm.  The  colored  people  of  the 
British  colonies  have  outlived  all  this,  to  a  great  ex¬ 
tent.  Lord  Mulgrave,  when  he  came  out  as  Gover¬ 
nor,  in  1832,  took  noble  ground  in  this  respect.  The 
law  which  had  placed  the  colored  people  of  the  col¬ 
ony  on  an  equality  with  the  whites  had  just  come 
into  operation.  Formerly,  in  all  those  islands,  as 
now  in  the  South,  a  colored  man  could  not  sit  in  the 
jury  box, — [A  voice — ‘  He  cannot  in  the  Northern 
States  ’] — nor  on  a  coroner’s  jury  ;  he  was  not  allow- 


31 


ed  to  exercise  the  elective  franchise ;  he  could  not 
hold  any  office  under  government,  either  civil  or  mil¬ 
itary,  and  up  to  within  a  short  time,  he  could  not  in¬ 
herit  property,  except  within  a  very  limited  amount. 
Well,  sir,  a  law  was  passed,  and  went  into  force, 
which  did  away  with  all  their  legal  disabilities ;  still, 
they  were  subject  to  the  same  discouraging  prejudi¬ 
ces  that  I  find  existing  here,  to  a  great  extent.  A 
white  man  would  have  felt  himself  degraded  by  sit¬ 
ting  down  to  table  with  a  colored  man.  Lord  Mul- 
grave  determined  to  put  his  foot  upon  this  evil,  and 
he  invited  some  of  the  most  intelligent  and  respect¬ 
able  colored  ladies  and  gentlemen, — those  whose 
wealth,  intelligence  and  position  in  society  entitled 
them  to  such  a  mark  of  distinction, — to  his  parties. 
(Applause.)  He  made  it  a  j)oint  to  dance  with  color¬ 
ed  ladies  himself,  and  he  introduced  colored  gentle¬ 
men  to  Ladj-^  Mulgrave  as  partners,  with  whom  she 
danced ;  and  when  some  of  the  gentry  gave  the  cold 
shoulder  to  these  colored  guests,  he  caused  it  to  be 
intimated  to  them,  that  if  they  expected  invitations 
to  the  Government  House,  his  guests  must  be  treated 
by  them  with  the  same  respect  and  courtesy  he  man¬ 
ifested  towards  them  himself.  (Loud  cheers.)  That, 
sir,  did  more  than  any  thing  else  I  know  of  to  put  an 
end  to  the  reign  of  prejudice  upon  that  island.  Very 
soon,  the  colored  people  began  to  mingle  upon  equal 
terms  with  the  whites ;  they  met  together  in  private 
parties  ;  and  soon  the  colored  people,  by  the  exercise 
of  the  elective  franchise,  acquired  a  considerable  de¬ 
gree  of  political  power ;  and  now  it  would  be  the  ruin 
of  any  public  man  in  Jamaica  to  have  it  known  or 
suspected  that  he  cherishes  any  prejudice  whatsoever 
against  his  fellow-men  on  account  of  color. 


32 


\ 


Sir,  the  colored  people,  removed  from  under  the 
discouraging  influences  to  which  I  have  referred,  show 
themselves  able  to  cope  with  the  white  man  under  any 
circumstances.  Take,  for  instance,  the  present  head 
of  the  Jamaica  government — Edward  Jordan,  a  col¬ 
ored  man ;  his  dark  skin  and  his  frizzly  hair  show 
him  to  be  nearly  allied  to  the  African  race  on  one  side, 
as  he  is  to  the  white  race  on  the  other.  I  remember 
the  time  when  Ed-ward  Jordan, — w'ho  had  acquii'ed 
all  the  learning  he  had  from  our  mission  schools, — 
stood  within  the  shadow  of  the  gallows,  and  had  a 
very  narrow  escape  for  his  life, — and  for  what?  It 
was  in  the  days  of  slavery,  and  he  was  a  leader  in 
the  anti-slavery  party.  He  had  taken  an  active  part 
in  the  agitatiop  which  ended  in  the  removal  of  the 
legal  disabilities  of  the  free  colored  people,  and  then  he 
stood  up  to  agitate  for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  having 
started  a  semi-weekly  newspaper  called  the  Jamaica 
Watchman ;  and  in  the  beginning  of  1832,  there  was 
a  pro-slavery  man,  w'ho  had  been  a  leader  in  that  par¬ 
ty,  who  suddenly  came  over  to  the  anti-slavery  party, 
and  took  active  measures  to  ameliorate  the  condition 
of  the  colored  people,  and  prepare  the  w’ay  for  the 
abolition  of  slavery.  Well,  sir,  in  the  newajjaper  con¬ 
troversy  to  which  this  gave  rise,  Mr.  Jordan  wrote  the 
following  sentence: — ‘  We  are  glad  to  see  Mr.  Beau¬ 
mont  coming  over  to  the  right  side,  and  we  shall  be 
glad  with  him  and  all  the  friends  of  bumanit)’’,  to 
give  a  long  pull,  a  strong  pull,  and  a  pull  all  together, 
and  bring  down  the  system  by  the  run,  knock  off  the 
fetters,  and  let  the  oppressed  go  free.’  That  was  the 
sentence.  The  following  -week,  as  he  sat  in  the  Su¬ 
preme  Court,  reporting  for  his  paper,  to  his  utter  as- 


33 


tonishment,  he  heard  his  own  name  proclaimed  by 
the  clerk,  under  indictment  for  a  capital  felony — ‘  con¬ 
structive  treason.’  He  had  never  heard  a  whisper  of 
it  before,  but  he  was  taken  from  his  seat,  placed  in  the 
felon’ s  dock,  and  arraigned  upon  that  capital  charge ; 
and  it  was  with  the  utmost  difficulty  that  his  counsel, 
Mr.  Watkis,  also  a  colored  man,  succeeded  in  get¬ 
ting  his  trial  postponed  for  two  days,  to  prepare  his 
defence.  The  prosecution  failed,  because  they  could 
not  prove  the  publication  of  the  paper  ;  but  there 
was  a  regular  plot  against  the  life  of  Mr.  Jordan,  to 
which  the  Governor,  Lord  Belmore,  (to  his  shame  be 
it  said,)  was  a  party,  he  having  agreed,  if  Mr.  Jordan 
was  convicted,  to  sign  the  warrant  for  his  execution. 
He  was  removed  shortly  after  for  incompetency,  and 
then  came  in  the  noble  Lord  Mulgrave,  now  Marquis 
of  Normandy,  to  whom  I  have  referred. 

But  this  effort  to  destroy  Mr.  Jordan  onl}'-  placed 
him  upon  an  eminence.  The  colored  people  rallied 
around  him.  They  had  the  control  of  the  elections  in 
Kingston  ;  and  at  the  next  ballot,  they  elected  him  as 
the  representative  of  the  commercial  capital  of  Ja¬ 
maica,  which  position  he  occupied  for  twenty  years. 
About  the  time  I  left  the  West  Indies,  he  was  called 
into  the  upper  branch  of  the  legislature,  the  Council, 
and  now  Mr.  Jordan  is  Prime  Minister  of  Jamaica, 
the  head  of  the  Cabinet.  He  occupies  the  same  po¬ 
sition  in  Jamaica,  as  the  Earl  of  Derby  in  England, 
and  is  a  man  who  commands  the  respect  of  all  parties 
and  all  colors  in  the  community. 

Then,  sir,  there  is  Mr.  Richard  Hill.  He  has  been 
for  twenty  years  the  head  of  the  stipendiary  magis¬ 
trates’  department  in  that  island,  and  a  man  of  well- 


34 


known  ability  and  information  ;  indeed,  he  is  looked 
up  to  by  all  parties  on  the  island  as  authority  in  all 
matters  of  natural  science.  Mr.  Hill  is  also  colored, 
only  one  remove  from  a  black  man ;  that  is,  he  is  the 
child  of  a  black  mother,  having  a  colored  father. 
Mr.  Hill  is  a  man  whom  any  one  might  be  proud  to 
call  his  friend  ;  a  man  of  masterly  intellect,  a  perfect 
gentleman,  and  every  thing  that  a  man  ought  to  be, 
and  I  may  add,  he  is  a  Christian  man. 

Then  there  is  upon  the  judicial  bench  of  Jamaica 
Mr.  Montcrief, — also  only  one  remove  from  a  black 
man.  His  father,  who  was  a  man  of  some  wealth, 
sent  him  to  England,  and  gave  him  a  liberal  education  ; 
he  was  admitted  to  practice  in  one  of  the  Inns  of 
Court,  made  his  w'ay  to  the  Jamaica  bar,  and  then 
to  the  bench,  and  is  now  the  second  amongst  the 
judges  of  the  colony. 

Sir,  place  the  colored  man  along  side,  on  equal 
terms,  and  he  will  compete  with  the  white.  How  has 
Mr.  Jordan  forced  his  way?  Not  by  favor,  sir,  but 
by  talent,  and  the  exercise  of  that  talent.  How  have 
Mr.  Hill  and  Mr.  Montcrief  won  the  positions  they 
now  fill  ?  Not  by  favor,  sir,  but  by  competing  with 
the  white  man,  with  all  the  advantages  of  education 
and  wealth  and  interest  in  his  favor.  Sir,  my  observa¬ 
tion  goes  to  show  this  :  that  they  make  good  mechan¬ 
ics,  very  good  magistrates,  (for  more  than  half  the 
magistrates  in  the  island  of  Jamaica  are  colored  men,) 
efficient  legislators,  (I  suppose  not  less  than  a  dozen 
in  the  Legislature  of  Jamaica  are  men  of  African  de¬ 
scent, — two  of  them  ‘  perfect  Africans,’  to  use  an  ex¬ 
pression  common  here ;  one  of  them  has  occupied  the 


35 


position  he  fills  twelve  or  fourteen  years,  the  other, 
ten  years, — and  occupied  them  respectably  and  effi- 
cientlyO  They  make,  also,  good  medical  practition¬ 
ers,  One  of  the  cleverest  men  I  knew  in  the  island  of 
Jamaica,  and  a  man  who  stood  first  in  one  branch  of 
practice,  was  a  colored  man.  They  make  very  excel¬ 
lent  schoolmasters.  All  my  teachers  are  colored  men, 
and  I  would  not  exchange  them  for  white  men.  If  I 
had  the  choice  of  a  white  or  colored  man  as  a  teacher 
in  the  West  Indies,  I  should  decidedly  give  the  pref¬ 
erence  to  the  colored  man,  on  this  account ;  he  can 
better  accommodate  himself  to  his  position.  In  nearly 
all  cases  where  men  come  out  from  Europe  to  take  the 
position  of  schoolmasters,  they  turn  out  to  be  failures. 
We  can  only  conduct  our  schools  efficiently  by  hav¬ 
ing  and  training  colored  teachers ;  and  we  do  that, 
and  we  find  the  colored  man,  in  every  walk  of  life, 
able  to  compete,  and  that  successfully,  with  men  of 
fairer  skin. 

Then  what  about  the  ladies  ?  I  can  say  a  good 
word  for  them..  They  make  capable  housekeepers, 
devoted,  faithful  wives,  tender  and  judicious  mothers. 
Sir,  it  is  not  an  uncommon  thing  for  white  men  to 
marry  colored  ladies.  I  have  known  numerous  in¬ 
stances  of  this  kind,  and  I  have  seer,  these  colored  la¬ 
dies  presiding  at  the  table  of  their  husbands  with  as 
much  grace  and  dignity  as  any  white  lady  could  dis¬ 
play  in  that  position.  Sir,  give  them  the  opportunity, 
and  they  will  show  themselves  to  advantage,  whether 
male  or  female.  (Applause.) 

I  do  not  know,  sir,  that  I  should  feel  justified  in 
dwelling  any  longer  upon  this  theme  ;  I  fear  I  have 


36 


wearied  this  audience.  However,  you  asked  me  to 
enter,  in  detail,  upon  this  question  of  the  failure  of 
emancipation  ;  and  I  think,  although  I  have  done  it 
very  lamely,  I  have  stated  facts  which  go  to  prove 
beyond  dispute,  that  emancipation  in  the  British  col¬ 
onies  is  no  failure.  (Applause.) 


